The Who Brings Legendary Performance to Philadelphia on ‘Moving On’ Tour

The Who brought their ‘Moving On’ Tour to Philadelphia, PA on May 25th to the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, Citizens Bank Park. J. Geils Band’s Peter Wolf opened up the near capacity show with a nice 30-minute set that had fans singing along to a number of hit songs.

The Who was joined by a full symphony orchestra that performed with them for most of their set giving their fans a rejuvenating unique take on their classic hit songs. Although at one point during their show the orchestra did leave the stage for 5-songs where The Who rocked as they normally do before the orchestra rejoined them onstage for the finale set before closing out the show with “Baba O’Riley.”

The show launched with “Overture,” a track from the rock opera Tommy, which was a great launch to their full symphony orchestra portion of the set which was present through the entire first 11-songs. During this performance the rock opera was revitalized with the help of the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra. After the first 11-songs, the orchestra left the stage and it was just the full band onstage to give a rockin’ performance of “Substitute,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Behind Blue Eyes (with Violins and Cello),” and then the band left the stage as just Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend performed “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Tea & Theatre.” The setlist was heavily filled with songs from the two influential rock operas, including Tommy and 1973’s Quadrophenia, with the rest of their being consistent of their classic smash hit songs that still dominate radio across the globe today.

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey definitley have aged but their music hasn’t, the fans were so into it just as if they were seeing them 25 years+ ago. The duo is a force to be reckoned with between sharing vocals back and forth, each giving their voice for their own specific songs to sharing instrumental duties throughout their 24-song set with different instruments. Although the production value was sparse, they did have a great vibrant light show throughout their set but there was no production other than that, but they don’t need it as Daltrey and Townshend kept the crowd entertained for nearly 2-hours.

Highlights of The Who’s set would definitely include the violinist solo during “Baba O’Riley” by Philadelphia School of Rock graduate Katie Jacoby, the energy that the band still gives off even at their age (Daltrey is 75, Townshend is 74) and yes Daltrey still swings his microphone around and Townshend still windmills his guitar riffs at times and of course the massive sing-a-longs to songs like “I Could See for Miles,” “Baba O’Riley,” “Pinball Wizard” and “Who Are You.” We also thoroughly enjoy the combination of rock band with symphony orchestra making for a very dramatic-vibe to their rock songs.

The show ended as Townshend took a rock-infused jump saying, “This is the band, That is the orchestra. And this is Philly!”